New York To Get Open Listings Online (Finally!)

Sorry, no links. I just did a quick look at NY Times archives and REBNY press releases without success. But early n 2006 or late 2005 there was press coverage of an “inquiry” by the feds into “sales practices” in Manhattan. I don’t remember whether there was further info in the press or just on-the-street among REBNY members that the FTC (not DoJ; I fumbled on that one) was looking at potentially anticompetitive effects of how Manhattan firms “cooperate” vs. how they “compete”.

Sorry not to be more precise. FTC has definitely opened inquiries and brought complaints against Realtor® organizations around the country, often focused on how “traditional firm” relate to “alternative business models” (so-called discount brokers, “limited service” agents).

mcteague — this could hurt FSBOs *if* it hurts NYTimes.com. If REBNY draws buyer eyeballs away from NYTimes.com (because the REBNY portal is perceived as having essentially all the “real” listings, for example) then those lost eyeballs will be lost to the FSBOs who advertise on NYTimes.com but who will not be able to list on REBNY.

I can’t imagine that REBNY is *that* worried about FSBOs to go to all this trouble, though.

Maybe they are really aiming at the Brooklyn firms that do not co-broker….

That Dottie Herman quote is *fascinating*, suggesting that the PR announcement 6 months in advance may be more squirrelly than I first thought. THX for the link to The Sun Mr. Stoner.

My first-blush comments I made on my blog yesterday, soon after getting the REBNY-members email, are below, but today I am interested more in the money issues, and wondering what REBNY is trying to accomplish.

About the money, I am told that the 319 REBNY firms will be assessed $3500 or $7000 (depending on their size) to create this web portal. Who needs $1mm to set up a web portal off of a data base that already exists??

About the inter-firm issues, this will be a huge advantage for the smaller firms – if REBNY really promotes the site – and a relative disadvantage for the firms that spend a lot of money on branding their web sites.

Is this a power play to cut a better deal with NYTimes.com?

REBNY as an institution has had to have every bit of data-sharing or any form of cooperation dragged out of it (kind of the way the many of the Brooklyn firms don’t play so nice together), so one *has* to wonder if this is a defensive measure to slow down the Trulias of the web.

The idea that this may be set up to cut FSBOs off at the knees is intriguing, except that the FSBO market is (a) relatively impervious to change [there are always *some* people who will do it themselves] and (b) too small to justify this huge effort.

But I don’t see this as such a done deal anymore, after reading the PruDE backtracking.

A few first-blush comments from my blog yesterday:
I hope REBNY will make more of an effort to make sure the information is both “accurate and current”. I frequently hear agents complain about information shared through the REBNY Listing Service that is neither accurate nor current.

This should NOT be confused with the classic Multiple Listing Services that serve brokers in the rest of America, as this will be for current listings only. REBNY firms do not share closed sale information with each other, though the change in NYS law this year means that coop sales data will dribble into the public as the city’s data base spits it out. It remains to be seen how much information that agents share even about current listings will be in this public web portal.

The 30+ members of the Manhattan Association of Realtors® (probably all of whom are also REBNY members) already maintain a Manhattan Multiple Listing Service that provides public access to member firms’ listings (about 15% of the market) and even have an Internet Data Exchange system (IDX, like out there in America) in which member firm listings appear on each other’s websites directly. MANAR firms also share closed sale information with each other immediately. My understanding is that MANAR was formed, in part, because REBNY did not want to share more than its member firms were already sharing. So the politics of this will be something to ponder over the coming days.

What will the New York Times think? Currently, NYTimes.com is the closest thing there is to a public “web portal” for listings. (NYTimes.com is notorious for running ads for properties that do not exist, as well as ads for properties that have long since gone into contract or closed.) I have been told that the Times was able to charge the big firms to create that website at the Times And – obviously – it charges to have listings put up there. Will this kill NYTimes.com?

Cynics might wonder whether there is any connection between this proposed web portal (why announce six months in advance??) and the inquiries by the federal Department of Justice Federal Trade Commission into Manhattan real estate practices.

No word on whether there will be a REBstimate tool, but don’t count on it.

How ’bout closed sale price data? That would be a harbinger.

Yes, I’m sure it will be the best site, with the most complete information, because as you know they’ve always wanted you to have all the info!

Get a clue.